NEWS
Follow UsIndia were subjected to dire circumstances in New York, a venue that didn’t allow any batters to flourish. Coming to Barbados, they put up a comprehensive performance with the bat and ball to beat Afghanistan by 47 runs in the third Super8 clash of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024.
It was especially satisfying for many cricket fans that the likes of Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, and Suryakumar Yadav stood up for India even though the veteran duo of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma didn’t contribute much.
For someone who has dominated the ICC T20 World Cups with absolute authority, this has particularly been very challenging for Virat Kohli, who has managed just 29 runs in total at an average of 7.25. When asked about the former Indian skipper, India’s batting coach, Vikram Rathour, stated that he would like Kohli to score more for the side.
“I’m not happy. I would love if he gets going and scores more runs. But yeah, it is good that when you are challenged at times and you know, the guys who are not getting too much of batting in India sometimes, they are the ones who put up scores today, and our middle order came into play. So, it was good to see,” Rathour said in the press conference before India’s match against Bangladesh in Antigua.
“I think we already played in the worst conditions that were possible in New York so anything after that is feeling good only. Even today felt really good. So, I am expecting wickets to be better. I mean, it won't be as challenging as what we had in New York. And again, we are equipped, I think, as a team, as a batting unit, to deal with any conditions that are put in front of us.”
India have won all four completed games so far (the match against Canada was washed away. With the side aiming to break the draught of ICC trophies, there couldn’t have been any complacency - something Rathour reiterated smoothly.
“We know we are playing a World Cup, so everybody is really motivated. We want to do well as a team and in this format especially, you cannot afford to be complacent. We have to be on top of our games and we are looking forward to doing that.
“Every game is a fresh game for us. Every game is a new game. And as a team, we have set up our own standards. And those are the standards we need to keep up with. So whichever opposition we are playing, whichever game we are playing, we need to do our best. And if we believe that if we do that repeatedly, we'll be fine.”
Rathour further added that the conditions in the Caribbean help the Indian team in a big way, especially with Axar Patel batting at the No.8 position. India also brought in Kuldeep Yadav in the place of Shivam Dube so as to strengthen the spin-bowling department.
“We've always had depth as a team, I believe. But yeah, these conditions may suit us more because we can afford to play two or three spinners at times. So that I believe can be our best team. That is our strength. That has been our strength. So yeah, it feels like because somebody like Axar playing at eight gives you a lot of confidence because he can bat and he's bowling really well at the moment. So, it does give you a lot of options,” the former Indian batter added.
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